St. Cloud Area Sees Another COVID Death with COVID Hospitalizations in Minnesota Nearing 600

(KNSI) – The Minnesota Department of Health confirms 1,918 new COVID-19 cases on Monday. Around the five-county St. Cloud area, there are 175 new cases: six in Benton, 10 in Morrison, 43 in Sherburne, 63 in Stearns and 53 in Wright.

The MDH also confirms six more deaths due to COVID, including a Stearns County resident who was in their 70s.

On Friday, nearly 35,000 COVID tests were processed around the state, and 5.5 percent of those tests came back positive.

Meanwhile, hospitalizations continue to grow, with hospitals in some areas of the state starting to reach capacity for COVID and non-COVID patients. The latest data available shows that 591 people are hospitalized across the state for COVID; 428 are non-ICU patients and 163 are in the ICU.

In central Minnesota, there are 78 non-ICU beds (10.1 percent of capacity) and 13 ICU beds (12.1 percent) available at area hospitals. The Twin Cities metro is also running short on capacity, with 59 non-ICU beds (1.6 percent of capacity) and 18 ICU beds (2.6 percent) currently available.

In some areas of the state, the shortage of hospital beds is even more drastic. In northeastern Minnesota, only two ICU beds are available, per the MDH’s latest data; for northwest and south-central Minnesota, those regions each have three ICU beds open.

As for vaccinations, 3,305,165 Minnesotans age 12 and older (59.4 percent of Minnesota’s population) have gotten at least one dose of a COVID vaccine, with 3,099,199 people now considered fully vaccinated.

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